Background: In recent years, there has been increased interest in the subjective quality of life (QoL) of patients with bronchial asthma. QoL is a significant indicator guiding the efforts of professionals caring for patients, especially chronically ill ones. The identification of factors affecting the QoL reported by patients, despite their existing condition, is important and useful to provide multidisciplinary care for these patients.
Aim: To investigate the clinical factors affecting asthma patients' QoL.
Methods: The study comprised 100 patients (73 female, 27 male) aged 18-84 years (mean age was 45.7) treated in the Allergy Clinic of the Wroclaw Medical University Department and Clinic of Internal Diseases, Geriatrics and Allergology. All asthma patients meeting the inclusion criteria were invited to participate. Data on sociodemographic and clinical variables were collected. In this study, we used medical record analysis and two questionnaires: the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) to assess the QoL of patients with asthma and the Asthma Control Test to measure asthma control.
Results: Active smokers were shown to have a significantly lower QoL in the "Symptoms" domain than nonsmokers (P=0.006). QoL was also demonstrated to decrease significantly as the frequency of asthma exacerbations increased (R=-0.231, P=0.022). QoL in the domain "Activity limitation" was shown to increase significantly along with the number of years of smoking (R=0.404; P=0.004). Time from onset and the dominant symptom of asthma significantly negatively affected QoL in the "Activity limitation" domain of the AQLQ (R=-0.316, P=0.001; P=0.029, respectively). QoL scores in the "Emotional function" and "Environmental stimuli" subscale of the AQLQ decreased significantly as time from onset increased (R=-0.200, P=0.046; R=-0.328, P=0.001, respectively).
Conclusion: Patients exhibiting better symptom control have higher QoL scores. Asthma patients' QoL decreases as time from onset increases. A lower QoL is reported by patients who visit allergy clinics more often, and those often hospitalized due to asthma. Smoking also contributes to a lower QoL in asthma patients.
Keywords: bronchial asthma; clinical factors; quality of life.